Cairns

3/4 of an hour north of the boulders we came into Cairns. Its a great city, with a medium town feel. People are laid back and seem to know that they live in paradise - even though its pretty tough to find work I'm told.

We caught up with an old friend from our Auckland days, Sarah Jordaan (Nee Wallace) and her husband Leon and two beautiful kids. It was a great time of catching up!

While In Cairns we of course did all the must do tourist days out, except we are yet to explore Green Island which I am also told is wonderful to snorkel around the jetty. But we will hopefully squeeze that in on the way back down as we need a couple of Tanya's pays to come in first.

One of the special highlights that we did do was the Karanda Sky Train which is a cable car that runs for miles through the rain forest with two stations along the way. It gives you a commanding view and the rain forest is spectacular.

At the top end of the cable car is the township of Karanda which is nestled amongst the rain forest and river. There is a butterfly zoo? in which the breed butterflies for tourists like us to wander amongst. IT WAS FANTASTIC! and Tanya got some (I think) outstanding photos

The ultraviolet coloured Ulysses butterfly catch your eye in bright sunlight as they flutter along. They are very timid however and for every on the move so as not to be eaten by birds. When they eventually do stop, they rest there wings closed almost immediately and the underside colour is quite drab in comparison. Tanya did however manage some shots just as they landed or were just taking off. hence the movement in the pictures.

before we left Cairns we bought a double kayak to add to our kit. We have not used it very much as the further north we travel the further into croc country we go, and after our time in Darwin, I have no intention of messing with those beasts!

The Boulders

Almost at Cairns now, we stopped at 'The Bolders' which was a great place to cool your heals (Boy that water was cold!)

I'm getting out of step again as before rocking up there, we stopped off for a stroll along Mission Beach, which is a very beautiful beach!

We were expecting to see Yasi devistation as Mission beach was almost ground zero. but it was not too bad, just a few more trees mown off at half height than you would expect to see in a forest.

Any way... Back to the bolders, We drove up an found a site that the last people had left minutes before. You see, its a free camp site, and its first in, best dressed. For the rest of the afternoon, there was an intermittent stream of hopefuls doing the circuit, but to no avail.

It was in this place that we had our first encounter with Cassowaries. There was one that would wander through the campsite at breakfast and dinner almost like clockwork.

They are remarkably big birds ( ...as in Big Bird from Sesame Street) and when it looks you in the eye, you begin to think that its come to dine in (or take out)

Tanya had much mirth watching the blasted bird chase me around the camping ground as I tried to finish my toast each morning. Crazy blue headed birds!


There was also a Sunbird nest right opposite our tent (as shown in the photo - Yellow bird)
Now these are at the other end of the scale being only about as big as your thumb - but beautiful! The male has a blue breast, but we only saw him a couple of times and we didn't get a pic :(

Through the night there was a bandy coot that would fosic around our things (think somewhere between a rat and a wallaby) so the boulders had wildlife in spades!



Murray Falls National Park

Moving upward (North we spent a night at Murray Falls NP

There was no signal there and no self regestration box so Julia shouted us the night on her.

A nice spot

Smalleys Beach

I've got myslf all out of sync, so I will have to back track to Smalleys Beach which is a wonderful spot where we had what seemed like our very own beach realestate at the end of the garden path.

As it turned out, we found out that it is a very popular spot, as we thought that we could just rock up and get a campsite, nooo, silly us. I must say at this point that I am pleased that I use to pay taxes, as THE most helpful Queensland parks phone lady did a quick ring around all the other booked in campers to see if any of them couldn't make it, then booked us in on their spot - there you go, there are your taxes at work - warms your heart, doesn't it.

Some of the sight seeing that we did in the area was so outstanding, I just had to share it with someone, so, finding that I had signal, I called my mate Gareth in Darwin (because I new he'd be at work - somehow that made the place even more special. Funny thing is that I don't think Gareth quite saw it the same way)

Census night by fire light

We spent a couple of idyllic days in the Jourama Falls National Park north of Townsville. This place (for us) will not be best remembered for the lovely grassy camping area, nor the exquisite waterfalls and enticing rock pools (bracingly cold) at the end of the short walking track. Here is a not very inspiring pic of our river

The first night will be remembered for the burn off of the undergrowth on the face across the river from our campsite. Periodically the park rangers run around the place lighting fires to lower the amount of fuel in the forest, so that wild fires don’t run out of control later in the season. An obliging slight breeze kept almost all of the smoke and ash on the far side of the river, so we enjoyed a night of not only starlight but fire light to boot.

Our second night in this wonderful place was census night, which had almost escaped our attention. Around 9pm, by which time we were well tucked up in bed (what else do you do when the big light in the sky goes out), came a knock at our tent flap. ‘Sorry to disturb you, but you will need to be filling one of these out’ said the young voice coming from just below the head lamp outside our window.

Next morning, finding where the chap had put our papers, I set to and started to complete the form. I would have to say that it was a bit more of a task than what I had anticipated. There did not seem to be a box that best described my/our circumstances, being of no fixed abode for the next 5 months with no idea where we want to be beyond that, having New Zealand ancestry (I think they left the NZ box out just to gall me, being a 5th generation Kiwi!) and not presently working but not on a benefit nor looking for a job at present but able to do so. The plus side however, was for the first time to being able to tick that I owned our dwelling outright, albeit a tent on a trailer.

Bowling Green National Park

Within Bowling Green National Park (another interesting name - Could find no greens, just plenty of Grey nomads who, if dressed in whites and flat soles, might be able to bowl underarm)

Where was I... Within Bowling Green National Park lies Alligator creek (which has no alligators either...) but it sure was a nice spot.

did all the walks and took some nice pictures, but by far the best sport was watching people trying to navigate there 30ft caravans around the camping bays which were designed for vehicles no longer than 8m. we unhitched  our trailer and pushed it into our bay. (Of course I could have backed it around with a blindfold on, but that would be showing off...)

Here is a little bird that followed us during one of our walks.

Great Keppel Island

We popped across on the ferry to Great Keppel Is and spent the day there, did some snorkeling and generally had a nice day. I'd have to say that the island is a bit worse for wear. but we bought a map, had a soso cup of hot chocolate and enjoyed the stunning scenery (That injection of $10 into the islands economy should cause quite a blip on the radar:)